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Setting Metadata for your Panoramas & 360° Videos

You should always add appropriate, correctly spelled metadata to all panoramas and 360° videos you upload to 360Cities. Adding metadata improves your videos' and images’ search ranking, making them more likely to be found by a search engine query on Google, other search engines, and on 360cities.net.

The goal of of providing metadata is to make it more likely that your images and videos will be found by viewers and potential licensing customers performing searches.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE METADATA: The primary language of your metadata should be English. Most customer searches are in English and our distribution partners may require English language metadata. Exceptions to this are names of landmarks and other significant, well-known places that search engines will recognize.

The easier your images and 360° videos are to find, the greater chance you have of earning royalties.

In general, your metadata should answer the following questions:

What is the subject of the image or 360° video (i.e what does the image/video primarily show)?

Where was it taken (include details like "in front of", "elevated", "near", "from the left side" or a specific named place)?

When was it taken (not the date and time as that is captured elsewhere but relevant times "in the morning", "at dusk, "in winter", "on Christmas day" etc.)?

Who? If there are well-known people in the image who might be recognized as a search result, you should also answer the question.

Metadata fields

Here is an overview of the main metadata you should add for each panorama or 360° video uploaded:

Title

Your title should include the name of the place and/or subject of the panorama or 360° video. Example: "Burrard Inlet, Vancouver". You can add more detail to the title if you wish, "Sunset over Burrard Inlet, Vancouver" or you can add the extra detail to the description. The title you write for each new panorama or 360° video is used to create the image handle, or URL. (If you do not create a title when uploading a new image/video via our web interface, our system will create title and handle from your filename.)

Examples:

www.360cities.net/image/arc-triumphe-paris

www.360cities.net/image/grand-canyon-arizona

www.360cities.net/image/carnival-venize

www.360cities.net/video/paragliding-col-du-tourmalet-french-pyrenees

www.360cities.net/video/elephants-of-botswana

NOTE FOR FTP USERS: Please rename your files before uploading via FTP. Our system uses your filenames to create both the handle and title for your panoramas. Titles can be edited later, but handles once set may not be edited.

Description

Your description should describe the panorama/video in one sentence, being sure to answer the questions what, where, and when.

Example: "Sunset over Burrard Inlet on a clear winter day taken from the port".

It is not necessary to repeat information from the title but there is no harm in doing so either.

It is fine to include longer descriptions on 360cities.net. If you copy text for your description from Wikipedia, you must include a citation and a link to the original page on Wikipedia. However, copying text from another source like Wikipedia will hurt your Search Engines page ranking, so we don’t recommend it. It’s always best to write an original description. One sentence is enough if you include relevant details of subject, place, and time and, in so doing, answer the important questions what, where, and when.

NOTE: Links to your own site, or text promoting your site or work are not allowed in either the title or description field. Images/videos with descriptions containing inappropriate links or texts will be unpublished.

Correct location

Ensure your image/video is correctly placed on the map by entering a location or address to improve its chances of being found by 360Cities visitors and customers. Only for panoramas: If your image file contains EXIF data with GPS coordinates, our system will read it and your panorama will be located on its proper place automatically.

Appropriate tags

Having an appropriate title and description is more important than adding a long list of tags. However, you can add a few tags (5 - 10 maximum) when your title and description do not include some important "category" words that might apply to your panorama or 360° video. There is no added value in adding tags that repeat words or phrases already in your title or description.

Adding an original description that describes "WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and, if appropriate, WHO" is more important than adding many tags.

Only for panoramas: Annotations

You can add more details about a particular spot or area inside your panorama (important buildings, sport venues, street names, etc.) by using the Annotations feature. Find more information here.

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